Muzaffar Ali recalls his association with Farooq Sheikh in Air India, then 3 films

Muzaffar Ali remembers Farooq Sheikh who died of a heart attack on Dubai on Saturday, saying, “I knew Farooq from the time when we both worked for Air India. He was a flight purser and I was part of the ground staff. We shared a mutual passion for cinema which at that time we never knew we would be able to put into practice. It’s really sad and shocking to see him go in this way. I worked with him in three of my films Gaman, then Umrao Jaan and Anjuman. In each of these I needed a certain vulnerability in the characters that he played. Gaman was his first break as a leading man. Before that he had done a role in M.S. Sathyu’s Garam Hawa. I saw him and I cast him immediately. I knew he had the quality of innocence and vulnerability that I needed in Gaman. Farooq was pitch-perfect as the migrant from a village in Uttar Pradesh earning a living in Mumbai by driving a taxi. Farooq really looked like he drove a taxi through the city. He actually mingled with taxiwallas. He possessed that quality of unalloyed honesty and transparency that made him look completely credible on screen. In Umrao Jaan I cast him as a Nawab. Though the role was culturally far removed from Gaman I still needed that quality of vulnerability which Farouq again projected in Umrao Jaan. In my Anjuman too he played an innocent man free of artifice and the manipulative spirit. He was like that in person as well. Was he trapped in playing goody goody roles? I wouldn’t know. I could only see him within the parameters of the characters that he played for me. We had a wonderful time working on all three films. All the three films were shot in and around Lucknow. So I think the credit for introducing Lucknow to Farooq goes to me.”

M.S. Sathya who gave break to Farooq Sheikh in films pays tributes to him: “To me personally it is a great loss. I introduced him to cinema in Garam Hawa. We also worked in theatre together. I feel a sense of tremendous emptiness. He was a very fine and subtle actor. I had seen him in Mumbai. He used to study at the St Xaviers College. So I knew his work. I needed that kind of innocence in Garam Hawa for the part of Balraj Sahni’s youngest son. We also worked together in Tumhari Amrita which I designed. We were closely associated for the longest time. And now he’s gone.”

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